Improvement in railway stock-cars



1 2 Sheets- 'Sheet 'II WILLIAM STARK, JOSEPH G 'F|SHER, & SIMEO N FITCH.

Improvement in Railway Stock Cars.

NO. 121,213. 729'], I Patented Nov. 21,1871,

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No. 121,213. I Patnted Nov. 21,1871;

UNITED STATES PATENT QFFIQE.

WILLIAM STARK, OF WHITE PIGEON, MICHIGAN, AND "JOSEPH Gr. FISHER ANDSIMEON FITCH, OF TOLEDO, OHIO.

IMPROVEMENT IN RAILWAY STOCK-CARS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 121,213, dated November21, 1871.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, WILLIAM STARK, of White Pigeon, St. oseph county,Michigan, and J osEPH G. FISHER and SIMIEON FITCH, of Toledo, in thecounty of Lucas and in the State of Ohio, have invented certain new anduseful Improvements in Stock-Oars; and do hereby declare that thefollowing is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, referencebeing had to the accompanying drawing making a part of thisspecification, in which- Figure 1 is a top-plan view of our car; Fig. 2,a side elevation of the same; Fig. 3, an end elevation of the same; andFig. 4:, a vertical crosssection on the lines a: w of Figs. 1 and 2.

Like letters of like kinds denote corresponding parts in each figure.

The object of our invention is the construction of a car for the safe,convenient, and speedy transportation of swine on railways, in which carthe animals may be watered, fed, and showered without stopping thetrain, and delivered in good, sound, and healthy condition; and itconsists in the construction, within the interior of the car, ofpermanent partitions, and in the contrivances for watering, feeding, andventilation, all as more fully hereinafter described.

In the drawing, A represents the entire car, constructed in the usualmanner B, the middle; O, the lower floor; and D, the roof of the same,upon'which is placed the tank or reservoir E, divided longitudinallyinto three chambers, of which the central, to, is for water, and thesides, 12, for air. Beneath the chamber a is placed the sprinkler F,extending longitudinally nearly the whole length of the car, and asimilar sprinkler, F, is placed in corresponding position directly underthe middle floor B. The car is divided laterally into a convenientnumber of compartments, G, by means of permanent partitions G, extendingpreferably less than the full height of the room where they are placed,and ingress and egress is had to and from these compartments by means ofdoors H, made of a single plank, pivoted in the top rail of thepartition and in the floor of the car. Movable or permanentwatertroughs, I, extend continuously entirely around each compartmentagainst the sides thereof, and grain-bins J, provided with slidingcovers 0, are placed upon the roof of the car upon each side of the tankE, preferably two to each compartment. Water is admitted into thechamber a through a suitable opening, a, by means of which it may befilled at the watering stations, and from this chamber flows into thesprinkler F through a proper opening in the bottom of said chamber, andinto the sprinkler F through the pipe K, which connects one end of saidchamber with the corresponding end of said sprinkler'. A rod, L, isprovided with suitable valves, so that when the rod. is turned in onedirection it suffers the water to flow into both of the sprinklers, andwhen turned in the other direction prevents anyflow of water to eithersprinkler. Pipes M lead from the water-chamber a to points over thetroughs I, the flow of the water through which is governed by valvesupon the rod N, which shut it off from all the pipes or suffer it toflow in all. Other pipes, O and 0, lead from the grain-bins J, the pipes0 leading to points over the floor B and the pipes O to points over thefloor (J, the flow of the grain being governed by valves upon the rod P,by means of which the flow may be cut off or permitted.

The provision for ventilation consists in the openings b in thechamber 1) for the escape of foul air, which openings have hinged doors1), opening outward in the slots d, in the bottom of said air-chambers,for the admission of foul and heated air, and in proper openings 6 inthe floor B.

The advantages possessed by our car, and by its component parts, are asfollows, viz.: 1n the great increase of the traffic of transporting livestock on railways it has become necessary to have special carsconstructed for the carriage of the varieties of stock. For this reasonour car has two stories and two floors, so as to give greater capacityfor swine. Again, the swine are divided into the two general classes ofstore hogs and fat hogs, and it is important that the two classes shouldbe separated, as otherwise the store hogs will press upon, crowd, andoverrun the fat hogs, and prevent them from obtaining food and water totheir great injury. In addition, swine are so greedy, and so subject tothirst and hunger, that it is essential that they should all haveconstant and convenient access to water and food, which cannot be doneif many of them are placed in the same compartment. For these reasonsour car has separate compartments divided by permanent partitions, eachof which is provided with its proper door, and has its continuoustroughs around the sides, and such provision, with regard to the feedingof the grain, that it is poured directly upon the floor of eachcompartment. Again, the animal heat from swine is very great, and as itstendency is to ascend, and it will not escape properly from the sides ofthe cars when in motion, we have arranged our systemof ventilationthrough the chambers on the top of the car, by which means the desiredobject is attained, while we are able to retain the roof, and use thesame car in extreme cold or stormy weather.

Without any change in construction our car is equally adapted for thecarriage of sheep.

Having thus described our invention, and enumerated some of theadvantages obtained. by its peculiar construction, what we claim as newtherein is 1. The combination of the separate compartments G and themovable or permanent continuous water-troughs I, constructed andarranged substantially as described and shown.

2. The combination of the water-reservoir a, the pipe K, and thesprinklers F and F, constructed and arranged substantially as describedand shown.

3. The combination of the air-chambers b and the water-reservoir a,constructed and arranged substantially as described and shown.

4.. The compartment-car A, provided with a fixed middle deck, B,permanent partitions G,

and continuous water-troughs I, constructed and arranged substantiallyas described and shown. In testimony that we claim the foregoing we havehereunto set our hands.

\VILLIAM STARK. JOSEPH Gr. FISHER. Witnesses: SIMEON FITCH.

GEO. S. PRINDLE, JOHN R. YOUNG, MORRIS FrrcH,

E. 1?. RAYMOND. (121)

